Book Review | In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

★★★☆☆

Fun fact I just learned: Christina Lauren is actually a writing duo and not a single person!

336 pages

Published: October 20, 2020
by Gallery Books

Read: December 2022

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Link to Goodreads

Main Characters

• Maelyn Jones – main character; 20-something. Unhappy with her job, lives back home with her parents
• Miles – Maelyn’s brother
• Theo – Maelyn’s age; her parent’s friend’s youngest kid
• Andrew – Theo’s brother; Maelyn has had a crush on him forever
• Bernie – Another of Maelyn’s parent’s friends. He is a hippie type, laid back, uncle – like character to Mae; she confides in him about almost everything
• The rest of the crew at the house:
  • The mom and dad are divorced yet still stay with the group every Christmas
  • There are little kids that are twins, and another couple as well

My Review

Since this was a holiday romance, I didn’t have too many expectations going in. I have read a could of the author’s other books and likes them enough, so didn’t even read the book description. This is a Groundhog Day style book – main character is in love with family friend’s son who she has known since childhood. Different timeline to try to figure out what makes her happy and to save the cabin they have spent every Christmas at.

This book was very meh to me. It was a light read for the holiday season – but it wasn’t fluffy enough or deep enough to be good.

Likes

• Throughout the storyline, I appreciate Maelyn’s realizations that you don’t have to keep doing stuff just because of tradition if it doesn’t make you happy – sledding, building snowmen, etc. (which can be applied to much bigger things in life)
• I really liked Benny 🙂 His easy going character that is always there for the friends
• The fact that the families had spent so many Christmas seasons together at the cabin

“The only person whose expectations you have to live up to is yourself.”

“Maybe we should do things because we love them, not because we’ve always done them that way.”

“I believe now that the universe delivers random acts of kindness, and it’s on us to decide what to do with them.”  

Dislikes

• The time travel loop wasn’t explained; it just happened and there was no way to know if it was going to end or happen again
  • It also seems like she could have hopped back a few more times?
• A few too many characters for me to keep completely straight and also have them be significant to the story

Spoilers